April 20th. 2nd PET scan results. Oncologist in shock.

Well,

I had high hopes that this blog would never need updating but alas it was not meant to be. The mind trip is going to continue. I am typing this from the oncologist's office and I am getting my first Chemo treatment (I have to be here for 4 hours so I might as well use the time wisely). The PET scan of mid-April showed that the 2 spots in my lungs had suddenly grown and that there were 4 additional spots. The radiologist and oncologist were quite shocked by this as two CAT scans and a PET scan had shown no growth whatsoever in the 2 original spots. The have the all of a sudden grow as well as see 4 additional spots all the while not having any spots in the places one would expect, left them quite taken with the situation.

I had started to feel increasingly bad though and the bloodwork revealed a test level of 180 (yeah, I know) so HRT was suggested but before we were going to do that we thought it best to do one more PET scan to make absolutely sure all was well. Good thing be did since out of nowhere the 2 spots had turned into 5. A lung biopsy was ordered immediately and after that fun procedure (the stick a 12 inch needle through your chest muscles into your lungs) the lab confirmed that the testicular cancer had jumped to the lungs. Crap.

Since the BEP chemo schedule can be detrimental to the lungs I had to do a Pulmanary Function Test. The results came back excellent ("strongest readings I have ever seen" according to the oncologist) and this going on the form of Chemo is not going to be much of a problem.

I will update this thread, this time mostly for myself, since I consider it therapeutic to write about the last months as well as the coming 9 weeks of Chemo. I have 5 days of 4 hour sessions this week and then next week and the following week is 1 day. This cycle of 5-1-1 will repeat twice so I will have 21 sessions in 9 weeks.

Keep your fingers crossed,

Marc